The following discussion of the background art is intended to facilitate an understanding of the present invention only. It should be appreciated that the discussion is not an acknowledgement or admission that any of the material referred to was part of the common general knowledge as at the priority date of the application.
Toy construction sets are among the most popular and inspiring toys for children. Traditional construction toys include wooden blocks that generations of children have played with during their formative years. More modern versions of toy construction sets most notably include those produced by Lego AS of Denmark, and its corporate predecessors. The basic familiar form of Lego™ toy sets is generally described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,005,282, and many variations have developed over the years based upon the same approach.
Wooden blocks are stackable, and many differently shaped blocks may be included in any given set. The child can play by stacking the blocks one on another. As there is no connection between any parts, all blocks must be supported by other blocks directly beneath. So the stacked blocks are very easy to collapse, however the complexity of the structures that can be achieved using this type of construction set is inherently limited by the lack of interconnectability between the components.
Lego™ blocks provide an advance over traditional wooden blocks, as these blocks feature upper and lower surfaces having mating male and female connectors. This connectivity permits upwards or downwards construction, and more complex, bigger and more robust structures can be configured as a consequence. That is one important reason why Lego™ has become the most popular construction toy set, globally. However, Lego™ toys do have critical limitations.
Firstly, Lego™ bricks can only be connected in one dimension, namely upwards and downwards. This restricts the child's imaginative powers. Secondly, a Lego™ brick set, as typically provided, is designed to construct certain pre-defined structures, owing to the limits of the connection mechanism of this type of toy. Generic Lego™ bricks fail to offer unfettered flexibility for children to play. Therefore, a range of specially designed bricks are provided. Children's play thus becomes a task of rebuilding a pre-defined structure according to directions, the antithesis of imaginative play.
Thirdly, owing to the male and female connectors on the surface of Lego™ bricks, the upper and bottom surfaces of the bricks are not smooth. This technical feature of the bricks limits their free movement and restricts how they may be used. Lego™ bricks cannot—for example—slide over each other as with traditional wooden blocks.
Some other toy sets also feature a three-dimensional constructional capacity. As an example: K'Nex toys, which is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,238,438, provides a set of rods and connectors that provide an ability for a child to construct various permutations of 3D structures. The rods and sockets architecture of this set results in constructions that are necessarily skeletal in design. As a consequence, constructions tend not to be realistic in appearance, and playing with such a set may not be satisfying from a child's perspective.
Other toys sets such as magnetically attracted square frames used to construct 3D structures have been proposed, but the connection of magnetic parts tends to be weak. It is in practice difficult to construct larger structures, and also the types of structures that can be built using these toys are limited. An example of this style of toy set is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 9,022,829.
Some other types of construction sets use slotted plates or cards to build 3D structures. The slots and cards can interlock with each other. However, because the building units are limited in terms of their shapes and sizes (card shaped units), the structures they can make are also very limited. An example of this type of construction is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,833,512.
A limitation shared by the various styles of prior art toy construction kits available is that they do not necessarily reflect how the physical structures are constructed or mentally imagined. Even though these various approaches provide enjoyable play, they do not offer the benefit of learning how buildings or objects are built in real life. An objective of the present invention is to at least attempt to address some of these and other limitations of existing toy construction sets.